Samsung Announce They Are Stopping Making Plasma TVs

I set up my 32" Samsung LCD flat screen with the internet connection ages ago. It ain't a Smart TV, but more than ample for our needs.
Since Mrs Dom got me one of those Sony TV top boxes for my brithday, last year, choosing what to watch has become ridiculously annoying.

If you have a smatTV already, you won't need one of those.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/1513...f11=ICEP3.0.0&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=108&ff19=0

I'm in the TV stone age both my sets are CRT tele's and both are nearly 15 years old and work perfectly.

My main set is actually this model http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/32-034-Ph...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557
that's a lousy picture (not mine) it's actually quite an elegant design.

Found that ebay listing amusing in that it sold for 99p they were about 1500 quid new

The Sony media streamer boxes that Dom speaks of did cross my mind as a solution for my old CRT TV, however I have no real desire to change the tele at this time as I am sitting in front of a 24inch Dell full HD monitor on which I can watch any of my DVD's or online movies in HD anyway.

I'd sooner upgrade the computers to one of these monitors one of the lads at work pointed this one out today, awesome particularly for a programmer who is also a photographer

@Timmers

I first saw one of the 4K curved TV's in SM appliances in Mall of Asia in Pasay, absolutely stunning, saw some more of them in Curries PC World when I got back to the UK the other month and they truly are stunning. For an amateur photographer like me the 4K screens with reasonably high bit depth are very appealing even though they can still only just display just what is roughly about a 10 megapixel camera image, 3840 x 2160 is getting close to say my Canon 40D at 3888 x 2592 and quite a bit less than my 1Ds mk II which is 4992 × 3328.

Would I have one, yes but not in this tiny wee flat

The only reason I would upgrade my TV (and Sky+ plus box which is also about 12 years old) just now is total power consumption, my electric bills for this tiny little flat are ridiculous and I have been looking into the costs for actually running all my kit.

Now the main reason my bills are high is that I often run multiple computers 24 hours a day however I have started getting realistic about this and started shutting down those that are not really being used, the flat is all electric so my heating in the winter comes from oil radiators that are not cheap but the computers and other electronics do their part in terms of waste heat, so there is only so much I can save, although they do make the place too hot in the summer.

An LED tele would use a lot less power than the current CRT and probably a lot less on standby.

I switched to laptops a long time ago, multiple laptops, for a programmer they are more versatile and less hassle than full size desktop machines, ok the desktop is more expandable and ultimately faster for less money, but portability is more important for me because of the travel to the Phils. Also when I get home I just fit the laptop to its docking station and hey presto I have a full powerful desktop computer with full size monitor keyboard and mouse.

Time is the issue, a computer that is off is not using power but it's also not useful and can't be connected to from a distance, from experiment my laptops seem to be running at about 50 to 60 watts per hour that's about 1.5 units a day if I leave them on all the time, I currently run three at home, one is a database server the other a development box and the third is my lightweight development machine (also the most powerful one I have) two of them were on all the time and the other is on in the house all weekend and 7 or 8 hours a night during the week, that's about 20 units a week for the 24x7 machines and 10 units for the one that travels with me to work.

That under British Gas electric prices is about 4 pounds a week for the computers alone, over a year it's over 200 quid just to run my machines, in reality it is probably a bit less as they are not running flat out all the time but from experiment they still seem to use quite a lot of power even at idle.

Two hundred a year for the computers just seems excessive to me, 7 years ago it would only have been around 100 quid or less but power is getting ridiculous, my fuel bills are now as high here in a one bed flat as they were in my 3 bed house in Scotland 5 years ago.